Black cockatoo daybreak

Jena Woodhouse
Beside the road to the marina,
cockatoos flare suddenly
in sky the wind has worked all night
to clarify.

Light wells out across the sea,
flowing landward from Kanomi,
haloing the silhouettes of birds
as black as ebony,
displaying fanned vermilion tails
like vivid rays in scallop shells
against the coral wash of tide
where sun is just about to rise.